Pay It Forward

Rating:
Summary: Two types of readers will like this.
Review: There will be two basic types who will enjoy this book. One will be the searcher who upon reading the words and soaking the text deep into their gutt, soul and spirit, will get up and "walk the talk". Who will practice what the book speaks about.

The second type will be the reader who wants a feel good experience and will feel all warm and cozy all over, and that is where it will end. They will not be the ones who give back, but will probably stay in their comfy material world and stagnant and wait anxiously for the next feel good book to come along.

Thankfully there are many in Habitat For Humanity and other local groups who have read this book and are proof that the authors words did no fall on deaf ears.

Rating:
Summary: LOVED IT!!! LOVED IT!!! LOVED IT!!!
Review: If you only read one "feel good" book a year, make it this one. Of course, if you're cynical by nature and look at the glass as half full, please pass on this one. This is a book that will satisfy the little bit of optimist that hopefully resides deep within us all. Since the movie version of this book has already been cast, it is great to be able to picture Haley Joel Osment in the title role with Helen Hunt as his mother and Kevin Spacey as his teacher.

Trevor McKinney, 12 years old and living with his single mom, is given an assignment by his teacher -- an assignment that, if done properly, would hopefully change the world in some way. While most of his classmates decide not to participate in the extra credit project, Trevor comes up with a plan that has some merit. Do "life-changing" favors for three different people and instead of accepting payment for these favors, instruct those people to instead pass on this goodwill to three people of their own choosing so ultimately another nine people will be helped and then eventually twenty-seven people until the chain will reach a point where people are receiving favors a second time around. The plan is called PAY IT FORWARD and it soon becomes a "movement."

Chris Chandler is an investigative reporter who is given the job of tracking down this movement to see if in fact there is anything to it. While Chris is trying to get to the core of this story, Trevor is getting disenchanted with his efforts. All three of his beginning favors go bust -- or so he thinks. Will people actually pay it forward or will they just take your help and forget about passing it on? While reading this story, you can't help but root for Trevor's every dream about mankind and every wish for society to come true. Is it possible to count on people to repay a favor? While Trevor is waging his battle, his mother Arlene is waging her own war against alcoholism and hopefully is winning with the help of her AA sponsor and her son. The person who has started this whole ball rolling is Trevor's teacher Reuben, a Viet Nam vet whose face has been so scarred that he finds it hard to be accepted by people for what he is. This book is so rich with characters you can relate to -- characters you want to know -- characters you want to help. I wanted to jump in and tell Trevor that I'd do three favors for people to help his cause.

Catherine Ryan Hyde does a wonderful job of telling this story through the eyes of many people. Along with Trevor's diary pages and the reporter's interviews, it makes for a wonderful reading experience. I had never heard of this author before but have since ordered her book, Funerals for Horses. Now I have two things to look forward to -- seeing the movie of Pay It Forward and reading this author's other book. Life doesn't get too much better than that unless of course people see the movie and decide to PAY IT FORWARD on their own.

Rating:
Summary: A STORY THAT SHORES BELIEF AND NOURISHES HOPE
Review: Following on the heels of her critically acclaimed debut novel, Funerals For Horses (1997), Catherine Ryan Hyde has crafted another affecting tale. It is one sown with promise and the innate goodness of humankind.

Can our world be changed for the better? Twelve-year-old Trevor McKinney thinks that it can. Cynicism may dismiss this belief as implausible, lachrymose, but Ms. Hyde's meticulously wrought, restrained prose keeps sentimentality at bay, while at the same time imbuing Pay It Forward with a transcendent power to move.

There is aught in Trevor's small town California background to explain his response when a social studies teacher challenges students to ""Think of an idea for world change, and put it into action." The boy devises an ingenious but simple scheme - pay it forward.

In Trevor's words: "You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to pay it forward. To three more people. Each. So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven....Then it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?"

Trevor initiates his plan with Jerry, a homeless man, to whom the boy gives his paper route earnings so that Jerry can make himself presentable and find work. But with his first paycheck Jerry turns into a bar, squanders his hard earned cash, and winds up in jail.

The second recipient of Trevor's good will is Mrs. Greenberg, an elderly arthritic widow. She dreams of seeing her beloved garden well tended again. Trevor spends after school hours restoring the yard to its former verdancy. When she asks the boy how she can pay him back, he suggests that she pay it forward. But Mrs. Greenberg dies.

Deeming his plan a failure, Trevor is further disheartened by a relationship that he hoped would develop between his mother, Arlene, and his teacher, Reuben St. Clair. A more unlikely pair would be hard to find - Arlene is white, a pretty but tough recovering alcoholic who works two jobs to make ends meet. She feels Reuben looks down on her because she lacks education. A "little lightning bolt of indignation," Arlene is so prone to misjudgments that her AA sponsor warns, "Every time you throw a punch, girl, you break your own jaw."

On the other hand, Reuben believes Arlene is repelled by his appearance - he is a black war veteran who lost half of his face in Vietnam. Wounded both physically and emotionally, he is only comfortable in a classroom. In a moment of self-revelation, Reuben discloses, "Any moment that required him to be emotionally helpful, to offer solace or understanding, was a hard moment."

Yet, despite Trevor's misgivings his plan has taken root and is growing, spreading across state lines to Washington, D.C.. An invitation is extended to Trevor, Arlene and Reuben to come to the White House. where President Clinton will present the boy with an award.

Trevor describes that time as "the best, most incredible day," and asks Reuben, "Do you think there'll ever be a day this good again? Or do you just get one of these?"

The answer to his question is found in a sudden, heartbreaking denouement.

Related in alternating narrative voices Pay It Forward is resonate with heart wrenching struggle and hard won achievement, greed and largesse, hope and disappointment, courage and fear - all the stuff of which human life is made. It suggests a utopia impossible to bring into existence, a premise far too chimerical to succeed. Or, is it? Imaginatively conceived, meticulously rendered, Pay It Forward shores belief and nourishes hope.

Rating:
Summary: You Should
Review: Listening to this inspiringly delightful book, I knew my eyes would demand a share in the wealth my ears had discovered. This funny, bittersweet tale of Trevor and his determination to change the world is beautiful in it's simplicity. Read or listen to this book and 'pay it forward' by recommending it to another...it will change your world...the world.

Rating:
Summary: Great Idea, Bad Novel
Review: It is hard to give Pay It Forward a bad review. I feel like such asour puss because Pay It Forward is based on such a wonderful premise:do three people a favor and instead of asking them to pay you back,ask them to pay your favor forward. They should each do favors forthree more people, and so forth. Great idea, right? But it comes tous in a poorly written novel. The character development isnon-existent. So many of the characters in this novel do things whichmake no sense. The narrative is disjointed and has no flow. Hydeuses devices to get certain aspects of the story into the narrativeand these devices just do not work. As an example, when she wants toget into a character's head, she inserts an excerpt from other,fictional books about the events taking place in the novel. Thesefictional books just seemed so contrived and I thought there would bebetter ways to get her point across.

Because this book has such afabulous premise, I believe the movie will be better than the book. Irecommend waiting for the movie and focusing on the intriguing messageof the book. Don't waste your time on the book at all. It's notworth it.

Rating:
Summary: Read It Today, Share It Tomorrow
Review: This was truly one of the most thought provoking, moving and inspiring books I have read -- while also being light, funny, and refreshingly optomistic in tone! The author's use of multiple voices to tell the story adds a unique dimension to her effective story-telling. This is the type of book that you cannot put down, you spend hours discussing it's implications with others, and you want to run out and buy it for everyone in your life! I have passed this to 10 friends so far, and EVERYONE is unanimous in their profound praise of this moving, life-changing story!!! Order it TODAY!!!...and then wonder if we could really change the world in the way Trevor (main character) managed to do...why not try???

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and Enlightening
Review: I absolutely loved this book! I highly recommend it and have given it as a gift to almost everyone that I know. It is a definite "feel good" book that really makes you stop and think about what we can do to make our world a better place. For those who have commented that it isn't well written, etc; I really feel that you aren't getting the message that is intended. If only we all followed the principles of this book. I for one, have already begun.

Rating:
Summary: Pay It Forward Moved Me!
Review: I couldn't put this little book down, it has the best of everything: tragedy & humor, frustration & wisdom. Yes, it's a simple idea, Pay It Forward, while similar to Random Acts of Kindness, succeeds because of the numbers. When a scarred teacher & a special student meet in a classroom, everyone's life changes. Trevor's just 12 years old & still can't see over the tops of the corn, however, a reporter can & ten years after the assignment that started it all, he is searching for the beginnings of a phenomenon that changed the world as we know it! I could have had much, much more of the changes yet that's the miracle waiting to be revealed. This delicious read is all about giving, doing good for others with just one little string attached. Lovely, lively read for all ages. A fabulous gift idea! Do check out my full review at [my website]

Rating:
Summary: Same Concept as "Magnificent Obsession" by Lloyd C Douglas
Review: Good idea for a plotline, but enjoyed the concept more in Douglas' "Magnificent Obsession" (1929?) in which old Doc Hudson bestowed favors on people with the condition that it remain a secret and they, in turn, must do something for someone else. Douhglas' sequel, "Dr Hudson's Secret Journal" expands on the concept.

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: This story begins by introducing us to the main characters: Trevor, a 12-year old boy; Arlene, his recovering alcoholic mother; and Reuben, who is a wounded Vietnam vet and Trevor's social studies teacher. As an extra-credit project, Reuben challenges his class to do something that matters to the world and report on it. While his classmates do predictable projects like recycling, Trevor comes up with "Pay It Forward", a movement where he does momentous good deeds for three other people and in return asks each of them to do something for three people, thus paying it forward. Trevor's classmates laugh at him, believing that it's in people's nature to fail to follow through on the promise to pay it forward. But the movement begins to have terrific results on the world.

I liked the way the book was written. The author spoke from the point of view of all the main characters and told the story through all of them. The style had its drawbacks: it was easy to get confused about which character was speaking. But it worked for this book.

This isn't your ordinary feel-good Random Acts of Kindness type of book. This is a book about real people feeling real pain who had their pain eased in very strange ways. And it's about people who wouldn't normally reach out to others, but they take the challenge seriously. In short, it's about you and me, and our neighbors, friends, and coworkers, the people who aren't usually anxious to be generous to strangers. And it's about people like us doing better.

I would recommend this book to people who need to read something inspirational but find the Chicken Soup for the Soul stories cheesy. I would also recommend it to people who are looking for something larger than themselves to devote their lives to.